SYDNEY
\nFormer Olympic champion Belinda Bencic sparkled on her return to the elite circuit after her maternity break, leading Switzerland to a 2-1 win over France in the United Cup mixed team tournament on Saturday.
\nThe 27-year-old beat Chloe Paquet 6-3, 6-1 in her first WTA Tour level match since giving birth to daughter Bella in April. She later combined with Dominic Stricker to defeat Elixane Lechemia and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-1, 7-6 (7\/4).
\nBencic, who will compete in the Jan 12-26 Australian Open with a protected ranking, said she was playing at a higher level than she expected.
\n\u201cThe whole comeback went much faster than I anticipated and expected. It\u2019s great,\u201d said Bencic, who first returned to action in October and played in the Billie Jean King Cup, apart from lower level tournaments.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t rush things. I was super careful with starting again. I didn\u2019t really want to put time pressure on my comeback. I just wanted to see how it goes every day. I think I was ready. There\u2019s no point in practising more. It\u2019s boring, right? It\u2019s better to play competitive matches.\u201d
\nUgo Humbert had earlier pulled France level at 1-1 with a 6-3 7-5 win over Stricker in the Group \u2018D\u2019 contest, battling back from 2-5 down in the second set to prevail and force a mixed doubles rubber at the Ken Rosewall Arena.
\nIn the evening session, Argentina beat Australia 2-1 in Group \u2018F\u2019 as Nadia Podoroska beat Olivia Gadecki 6-2, 6-4 before Maria Lourdes Carle and Tomas Martin Etcheverry downed Ellen Perez and Matt Ebden 6-2, 6-4.
\nAlex De Minaur had powered past Etcheverry 6-1, 6-4 to make it 1-1 in front of a raucous home crowd.
\nCanada were also victorious in Group \u2018A\u2019 of the tournament that features 18 countries, as they defeated Croatia 2-1 in Perth\u2019s RAC Arena.
\nFormer US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez overcame Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-3 before Felix Auger-Aliassime crashed to a 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 loss against Borna Coric.
\nFernandez and Auger-Aliassime then saw off Lucija Ciric Bagaric and Ivan Dodig 6-3, 6-4 to clinch the tie.
\nJessica Bouzas Maneiro got Spain off to a solid start with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Maria Sakkari before Stefanos Tsitsipas got past Pablo Carreno Busta 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to put Greece on the board in a Group C clash.
\nSakkari and Tsitsipas then edged out Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers and Sergio Martos Gornes 4-6, 6-3, 10-6 to wrap up the tie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SYDNEY Former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic sparkled on her return to the elite circuit after her maternity break, leading Switzerland to a 2-1 win over France in the United Cup mixed team tournament on Saturday. The 27-year-old beat Chloe Paquet 6-3, 6-1 in her first WTA Tour level match since giving birth to daughter Bella […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-452438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n